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Mauritius hosts 17th meeting of African Solidarity Fund

GIS - 24 November, 2017: The 17th Board of Directors Meeting of African Solidarity Fund (ASF)opened yesterday at the Intercontinental Resort, Balaclava in the presence of the Minister of Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, and representatives of the ASF.

In his address, Minister Bholah highlighted that the ASF aims to be the catalyst for the financial systems of member countries to allow private companies, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and microfinance institutions to access bank credit and to raise savings allowing them to finance productive investment projects that contribute to the economic development of the member countries.

He underlined that the ASF intervenes in diverse sectors such as, infrastructure, industry, telecommunications, energy, tourism and hotel industry, transport, and education. Mauritius, he recalled, has benefited from numerous interventions of the ASF. In 1981, for example it helped in the construction of the sugar terminal in Port Louis, and in 2002 the ASF assisted in the construction of nearly 1,000 housing units by the National Housing Development Company.

He further pointed out that the ASF has signed three Memoranda of Understanding with namely the Mauritius Africa Fund Ltd, the Maubank Ltd and the SBM Holding Ltd. These cooperation agreements, he underlined will enable Mauritius to benefit from the financial support of the ASF in a targeted way and from the necessary resources to further contribute to the economy.

Speaking about the SMEs, Minister Bholah underpinned there exist various platforms where they can benefit from funds but SMEs are unaware of it and one such institution is the ASF. He stated that his ministry in collaboration with the ASFwill create a thriving and conducive business landscape for SMEs to attain different phases of growth and assume a far more prominent role as an important pillar of the economy by raising SMEs’ contribution to GDP up to 52% in the next ten years and see to it how they tap into the African market.

For his part, the president of ASF Mr Abdoulaye Dieng reiterated the mission of ASF which is to strive for economic development and fight against poverty in member States by facilitating investment project financing in both public and private sectors as well as in micro-finance activities. He further spoke of a range of diversified products and services that the ASF offers from which Mauritius can benefit, namely financial guarantee, refinancing for loan duration extension, financial brokerage and funds management.

African Solidarity Fund

The ASF was established on 21 December 1976 with the objectives to participate in economic development and the fight against poverty in its African Member States by facilitating the financing of investment projects. The ASF has 14 member states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tchad and Togo.